After the Ball
by Gamma Orionis
Summary: After the Yule Ball, Padma has a chance to talk to Luna. Written for Lady Phoenix Fire Rose's One Hour Challenge on the HPFC forum.


Author's Notes: Written for the "1H" option for Lady Phoenix Fire Rose's One Hour Challenge on the HPFC forum.

_You will have one hour to write a thousand word story based off a pairing that I will give you and one prompt._

_Pairing:__ Luna/Padma__  
__Prompt__: "You know you love me"_

Enjoy!

)O(

Padma stormed into the Ravenclaw common room in a towering temper. The Yule Ball had seemed to last all night, and aside from a few brief dances shared with one of the students from Beauxbatons, she, Padma, had had to spend the entire time sitting next to a glowering Ron Weasley. Someone had spilled water on her, and there was a large wet spot on the turquoise silk of her dress robes (_thank Merlin it was only water_), her high heeled shoes had cut off all circulation to her toes, and she was probably going to come down with a fever from the doors being opened in the middle of December.

It was late and most of the students had thankfully gone to bed by the time Padma got to the common room, but, to her profound irritation, Luna Lovegood, who she considered something of a friend but had absolutely _no_ desire to talk to at this time of evening, was curled happily in an armchair with a serene little smile, flicking her wand back and forth and making a feather that she had laid on the table jump up and down.

"What's happened, Padma?" she asked, not even looking up, but following the feather with her wide eyes. She looked utterly transfixed by it, but sounded just as calm and matter-of-fact in her questioning of Padma as she ever would have. "Didn't you have fun at the Yule Ball?"

"No, I bloody did not," Padma snapped. She had a sudden mad urge to grab the feather away, right from under Luna's nose – why did she have to be so damn _serene_? It was maddening – couldn't she _tell_ the state Padma was in? Did she really have to _ask_?

"Why not?"

"Ron bloody Weasley wouldn't dance with me," she mumbled, and felt a hot flush rising in her cheeks as soon as she said it. It sounded stupid when she put it that way – juvenile and whiny, really, especially when she remembered that poor Luna hadn't been asked to the ball at all – but it had offended Padma's pride badly. She kicked off her shoes and sank down onto the couch across from Luna. "_And_ my feet hurt," she added, wiggling her toes, which were red and had grooves dug in them from the seams inside the shoes.

Luna put down her wand, and the feather fluttered back to the table. "I didn't know you liked dancing, Padma."

"I don't," she admitted. "Well… not really, at least. It's all right, I suppose – I don't mind it. But that the _point_ isn't that he didn't dance with me – the point is that he _asked_ me to the ball and he _ought_ to have danced with me!"

"Yes, it was rather rude of him," Luna agreed brightly. "What did you two do if you didn't dance?"

"He went off with Harry Potter," Padma grumbled. "They left me and Parvati and went off to walk in the gardens. I sat around a lot, getting water spilled on me." She plucked her dress.

"Maybe he's gay," suggested Luna.

Padma looked at her sharply. "_What_? Of all the things you could think – why would you think that? Just because he went for a walk with another boy instead of dancing with me? That doesn't mean he's gay!"

"No, of course not." Luna looked quite serious, her eyebrows drawing together and her mouth turning down very slightly at the corners. "But he might be. It's just a thought, and even if he was, it might not have anything to do with what happened at all. He didn't actually ask you to the dance himself, did he?"

"Well… no…" Padma said slowly. "Harry asked Parvati for him and she asked me… but still…"

"That's probably not it, though," Luna continued, as though she hadn't even heard Padma. "He probably just doesn't like you very much."

"Oh, thanks _very much_ for _that_ assessment, Lovegood!"

"Well, have you ever even talked to him before?"

"_No!_"

"So how can he–"

"Will you just _shut up and give me some damned sympathy, _Lovegood?" Padma almost yelled.

She regretted it instantly, wishing she could snatch the words right back out of the air. Luna closed her mouth and sat back in the chair. She picked up her wand again, tapping it lightly against her fingers, and though she was doing a very good job of keeping her serene little smile on her lips, Padma could see her normally bright and clear grey eyes clouding over.

_Oh damn_.

"I'm sorry…" she sighed. "I didn't mean…"

"It's all right." Luna didn't even sound sad, not half as sad or upset as Padma herself had sounded when she first came in, in her fury, but she could hear her voice cracking slightly and see tears gathering in the corners of those large, protuberant eyes. "I know you didn't mean to be unkind."

"Come on, don't cry…" Padma stood up and moved over to perch on the arm of the chair. She reached out and playfully tugged a lock of long, pale hair. "I'm going to feel wretched for weeks if I go to bed with you crying because of me." She smiled a little, trying to lighten the situation, but Luna said nothing.

"Luna…" Padma said in a mock-whiny voice, prodding her. "Come on, stop it. You know you love me…" She smiled teasingly, giving her a small push on the shoulder.

"Yes," Luna said, still sounding abnormally serious – at least, abnormally for herself. "I do love you. You're like my friend, almost."

"I am your friend, Luna…"

"It's too bad you went to the Yule Ball with Ron Weasley," Luna said with a small sigh. "I'm sorry that you didn't have a good time…"

"Well, yes, Luna, but I don't see why–"

"I'm sorry you didn't have a good time," she said, cutting Padma off, "because I think you might have had a better time if you and I had gone together."

)O(

_Fin_


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